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GTHA Transit Fare Integration

LNahid2000 said:
Nope, it vaguely says they're working on it, but that doesn't really mean much considering that they let the half-fare transfer agreement expire.

This GO Transit co-fare discount applies to the following transit systems: Durham Region Transit, Milton Transit, Grand River Transit, Guelph Transit, Oakville Transit, MiWay (Mississauga Transit), Brampton Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, Burlington Transit, Bradford West Gwillimbury Transit, York Region Transit and Barrie Transit. The government is working to expand this initiative to support more people using public transit to come into Toronto.

2023 Ontario Budget | Chapter 1B

2023 Ontario Budget: Building a Strong Ontario
budget.ontario.ca budget.ontario.ca
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Looks like wording is different between what was spoken and what's in print.
"...and we have eliminated double fares when taking GO Transit and local transit throughout much of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, and we are expanding this initiative including Toronto."

"is working to expand" vs. "are expanding" 😂
 
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11th said:
Looks like wording is different between what was spoken and what's in print.
"...and we have eliminated double fares when taking GO Transit and local transit throughout much of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, and we are expanding this initiative including Toronto."

"is working to expand" vs. "are expanding" 😂
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Taking the hardcopy as conclusive for now. Could still be "amended" before the Lieutenant-Governor signs it.
 
So, I still don't know exactly what they've chosen to do this year by way of fare integration, but I did some asking around and I am told there will be funding within the supplementary estimates that would allow for something; but how visible that will be is TBD.

***

For those unaware, as long-winded as government budgets can be, those 100 odd pages are just a political highlights package, sometimes buttressed with key fiscal facts. But they are far, far more broad than the supplementary estimates which is where you get to see more of the detail.

Part of this is just of necessity, in the same way that even the supplementary estimates rarely show you 'recarpeting office in North Bay' ; a budget simply can't detail even close to every line item for every ministry.

The other part, however, is political, its allowing the government to get alot more than 1 news hit out of a budget, by releasing the details over several weeks.

It also can preserve some flexibility in whether to go forward with some things, where details or costs are still being worked out, or where they are dependent on good economic performance for another quarter.
 
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Screenshot_20230330-135442.png

Looks like it's finally happening!
 

Ford government promises fare integration between Toronto, surrounding regions by end of 2023​

From link.

The Ford government has committed to integrating transit services and fares across the Greater Toronto Area by the end of 2023.

Ontario’s associate minister of transportation Stan Cho said on Thursday afternoon that fare and service integration is “happening this year and will include Toronto.”

He said that the province is “committing to full funding” of the program, promising details will be released soon.

Speaking at an event organized by the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Cho admitted transit around Toronto is “fragmented,” telling the room that the province “cannot afford that.”

“It should be simple, it should be affordable,” he said. “But I hear very often from transit riders, they are frustrated by their current experience.”
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The changes promised by Cho would dramatically reduce the cost of travel for crossing Toronto’s borders, if they are realized in full.

Under the current system, anyone switching from a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) vehicle onto a bus in the GTA-905 or a GO train or bus is required to pay an additional fare.

The province’s fare integration promise is designed to eliminate the doubling of local transit fares, Cho told Global News.

Take a trip from Barrie to Etobicoke, for example. Under the province’s upcoming plan, the rider would still pay the standard fare for the GO Train, but the local cost of transit in Barrie to get to the GO station and Toronto to reach the final destination would be cut, with the province refunding local transit agencies for the cost.

“This is why it is such a transformational opportunity to change the way we take transit,” Cho said. “When you think about that journey — whether you’re from Mississauga to Durham or whether you’re from Barrie to Fort York, it’s long, it’s expensive and it prevents people from actually taking those transit
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Government documents previously reported on by Global News say these changes could affect as many as 150,000 trips of five kilometres or less across Toronto’s municipal borders every day. The failures of the current system account for missed ridership of 18 million per year, a government note says.

Extra fares cost transit riders around $38 million per year and people experience more than 300,000 hours per year waiting for connecting buses at the edge of the city, the province’s internal assessments admit.

The Ford government’s 2023 budget included a broad commitment to fare integration across much of southern Ontario. It touted a series of previously-announced fare integrations between GO Transit and local agencies in the GTA-905, without details of fare integration in Toronto.

“The government is working to expand this initiative to support more people using public transit to come into Toronto,” the budget said, though details were not forthcoming either from the minister of finance or the province’s financial blueprint.

The Toronto Region Board of Trade has led a recent push for fare integration through a series of reports, pushing for a zone system to be adopted across Toronto, the surrounding area and much of southern Ontario.

“We believe this is going to take a lot of cars off the road,” Cho told Global News.
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Local transit agencies had previously argued that the cost of lost revenue from eliminating so-called double fares was a key barrier.

“Erasing the 416-905 double fare I think is an important step, but I just can’t see it being financially viable unless we get some assistance from the province,” Geoff Marinoff, who runs Mississauga’s transit system said, citing a figure of $12 to $15 million to compensate his service alone.

Speaking in February at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Toronto Transit Commission CEO Rick Leary called fare integration “a very expensive proposition.”

The province’s promised, unveiled by Cho on Thursday, is to reimburse local agencies.

A concern raised by local transit agencies around fare integration is the need to maintain their own independence, with some fears that provincial administration of fare integration could reduce their independence to operate on their own schedules or set their own fares.

“Municipal transit agency partners remain valuable partners with their autonomy,” Cho said. “Their autonomy is maintained it is important to us to respect their decision making.”

Cho called the commitment “just a first step with more to come.”
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Promises, promises, promises. From Doug Ford et al.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
That's not quite true fare integration - more like a beefed up version of what we have been doing for the last little while.

AoD
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I mean it's basically "pay the most expensive fare you would otherwise have to on your journey" by the sounds of it.

Stay within a local transit fare zone, or even chain together local transit agency trips, you can keep your fare to $3 or so. Hop on GO, you pay their distance-based fare but drop the local fare.

That's pretty integrated, depending on if that's what actualy happens. Not sure what else you could ask for.

It's not "Take the GO within Toronto for a TTC fare", which I know many are hoping, but it would allow people to connect to GO for only a few extra cents over a TTC ticket, or none at all if the GO trip is short.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I mean it's basically "pay the most expensive fare you would otherwise have to on your journey" by the sounds of it.

Stay within a local transit fare zone, or even chain together local transit agency trips, you can keep your fare to $3 or so. Hop on GO, you pay their distance-based fare but drop the local fare.

That's pretty integrated, depending on if that's what actualy happens. Not sure what else you could ask for.

It's not "Take the GO within Toronto for a TTC fare", which I know many are hoping, but it would allow people to connect to GO for only a few extra cents over a TTC ticket, or none at all if the GO trip is short.
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IF it means proper GO co-pay for Toronto, so that I can hop GO from Union to Danforth and then catch TTC for my 'last mile' home at no additional fare, I'd be reasonably pleased.

It would be a solid start; it also has to address, immediate cross-border trips between agencies not involving GO, so that you're trip is TTC/Miway you only pay one fare.

At that I'd be quite pleased.

I'd still like to see, charging for parking at GO Stations, but using that money to directly reduce GO Train fares along the network.

My math suggests, that given the high proportion of GO Commuters arriving by car, such a move could come close to a literal offset. ie. $7 per day to park, average round-trip fare to Union from an outlying station reduced by $6. ($3 each way). Obviously savings would be less on short-trips, and greater on longer ones.
 
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The devil will be in the details and I think the TBOT's proposal is the best but no manner which way you cut it, this is nothing but good news for Torontonians both in the 416 & 905. Hopefully, if not the TBOT proposal, they will shrink many of the fares in the inner city fares to be the same as TTC or the other agencies.

This is definitely going forward by the end of this year which is fantastic. Politicians NEVER, EVER, give dates unless they mean it. They use phrases like "we are working on it', or "is coming soon", or "we are finalizing the proposal" when they just want to appease the public and aren't really committing to anything. A clear date of "by the end of 2023" sends the message that this is not just another announcement but a firm commitment.

It's funny that, despite many left-wing people being horrified at the Ford election win fearing he would gut transit funding, Torontonians have never had it so good as under Ford's governance.
 
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